Spring 2017/Fuller Online
HT502
Blacketer
HT502: THE CHURCH’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHURCH, HUMANITY, AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT (4 Units: 160 hours). Raymond A. (Randy) Blacketer.
DESCRIPTION: HT502 is a survey largely of medieval and Reformation history and theology that focuses especially on the doctrines that received their crucial shape for Protestant Christians during this period. Among these are the doctrine of the church (including the authority and office of the ministry, sacraments, the place of councils, and the role of the laity), the doctrine of scripture (including the place of tradition), theological anthropology (including human nature as created and fallen, and original sin), and the doctrine of the Christian life (including the entire order of salvation—election, calling, faith, justification, sanctification, and final glory). Key figures to be studied include Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students who complete HT502 will demonstrate: (1) a basic historical and theological knowledge of the doctrines of the church, humanity, and the Christian life as those and other selected doctrines emerged especially in the medieval and Reformation church and developed to this day, (2) a basic competence in interpreting this history and theology and an ability to evaluate these theological issues and their historical development; and (3) a critical and sympathetic appreciation for the breadth, unity, and diversity of the Christian church.
COURSE FORMAT: This course will be conducted online on a ten-week schedule aligned with Fuller’s academic calendar for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.
REQUIRED READING: ± 1200 pages
Hillerbrand, Hans J. ed., The Protestant Reformation. 2nd ed. Harper and Row, 2009. ISBN: 978-0061148477, Pub. Price $16.99 [214 pp. assigned].
Plantinga, Richard J., Thomas R. Thompson, Matthew D. Lundberg. An Introduction to Christian Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0521690379, Pub. Price $34.99 [226 pp.].
The following required readings appear on the online course page as electronic documents or links:
Bartolomé de Las Casas, The Tears of the Indians (London, 1656), excerpts.
Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Church, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 5:421-29.
Decrees of the Council of Trent on Justification. Ed. Henry Beveridge, in Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts, vol. 3 (reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 92-107.
Meister Eckhart, “The Eternal Birth” & “The Castle of the Soul,” in Meister Eckhart, ed. Franz Pfeiffer, trans. C. de B. Evans (London: John M. Watkins, 1924), 20-25, 35-38, altered.
Grenz, Stanley J. “How Do We Know What to Believe? Revelation and Authority” in Essentials of Christian Theology, ed. William Placher (Westminster John Knox, 2003), 20-33.
Jowers, Dennis W. “The Theology of the Cross as Theology of the Trinity: A Critique of Jürgen Moltmann’s Staurocentric Trinitarianism.” Tyndale Bulletin 52.2 (2001): 245-266.
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, §§52-63, ed. Grace Warrack (London, 1901), 122-59, altered.
Kärkkäinen,V.-M. “Ecclesiology,” in Mapping Modern Theology, ed. K. Kapic & B. McCormack (Baker, 2012), 345-76.
Luther, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church” in Three Treatises, 2nd ed. (Fortress, 1970), 132-206.
Luther, Martin, A Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (Philadelphia, 1860), 233-36.
Mouw,Richard J., “Abandoning the Typology: A Reformed Assist,” TSF Bulletin 8/5 (May-June 1985): 7-10.
Muller, Richard A. “Was Calvin a Calvinist?” in Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012) 51-69.
Oberman, Heiko A., ed., Forerunners of the Reformation (Fortress, 1981), selections.
Opitz, Peter, “At the Table of the Lord: Zwingli’s View on the Lord’s Supper,” Unpublished conference paper made available by the author.
Paddison, Angus. Scripture: A Very Theological Proposal, chapter 3: “Scripture and Doctrine or, There’s No Such Thing as Sola Scriptura and It’s a Good Thing Too,” (London: T&T Clark, 2009), 65-92.
Pelagius, “Letter to Demetrias,” in J. Patout Burns, ed., Theological Anthropology (Fortress, 1981), 39-55.
Peter Lombard, The Sentences, 4 vols., tr. Giulio Silano (Toronto: PIMS, 2007-2010), selections.
“The Regensburg Agreement (1541), Article 5,” and “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” [1999], in Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant Dialogue, ed. Anthony N. S. Lane (T&T Clark, 2006), 233-259.
Robeck, Cecil M. “Canon, Regulae Fidei, and Continuing Revelation in the Early Church,” in Church, Word, and Spirit, ed. James E. Bradley and Richard A. Muller (Eerdmans, 1987), 65-91.
Sadoleto’s Letter to Geneva & Calvin’s Reply to Sadoleto, in Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters, trans. Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1844), 1:3-68.
Scalise, Charles J. “Exegetical Warrants for Religious Persecution: Augustine vs. the Donatists,” Review and Expositor 93 (1996): 497-506.
Schütz Zell, Katharina, “Apologia for Master Matthew Zell,” in Church Mother: The Writings of a Protestant Reformer in Sixteenth-Century Germany, ed. Elsie McKee (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2006), 57-82.
Steinmetz, David C. “The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis,” Theology Today, 37.1 (Apr 1980): 27-38.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 2; q. 12, aa. 12-13; qq. 23, 25, 92, 98, 99; II-II, q. 2, a. 9; q. 4, aa. 3-4; q. 5, aa. 2-3; and III-supplement, q. 39. English edition is that of the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (London, 1912-1925).
Thompson, John L. “Silent Prophetesses? Unraveling Theory and Practice in 1 Corinthians 11,” chapter six in Reading the Bible with the Dead: What You Can Learn from the History of Exegesis that You Can’t Learn from ExegesisAlone (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 113-35.
Watt, Jeffrey R. “Reconciliation and the Confession of Sins: The Evidence from the Consistory in Calvin’s Geneva,” in Calvin and Luther: The Continuing Relationship, ed. R. Ward Holder (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 105-120.
Yoder, John H., “Reformed vs. Anabaptist Social Strategies: An Inadequate Typology,” TSF Bulletin 8 (May-June 1985): 2-7.
Zwingli, Huldreich, “An Account of [His] Faith” (1530), in Latin Works of Zwingli 2:33-61 (excerpts).
RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES:
Saint Augustine: Confessions, trans. R. S., Pine-Coffin. Penguin, 1961. ISBN: 978-0140441147, Pub. Price $10.00.
Cross, F.L. et al., eds. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd ed. Oxford, 2006. ISBN: 978-0192802903, Pub. Price $215.00.
Muller, Richard A. Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology. Baker, 1996. ISBN: 978-0801020643, Pub. Price $34.00.
Placher, William C. and Derek R. Nelson. A History of Christian Theology. 2nd ed. WJK, 2013. ISBN: 978-0664239350, Pub. Price $30.00.
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Instruction, including videos, audio lectures, etc. [20 hours].
ASSigned readings [± 1,200 pp.] [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [80 hours].
Weekly forum participation and postings (20% of final grade). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and 3]. [20 hours].
Weekly quizzes (20% of final grade; the lowest two quizzes will be dropped). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, 2, and 3]. [5 hours].
Three directed essays on assigned topics and primary source readings (≤1800 words each: 30% of final grade). [This assignment is related to learning outcomes #2 & #3.] [25 hours].
PREREQUISITES: None.
RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Option to meet the TH2 or TH4 requirement in the 120 MDiv and 80 MAT Programs (Fall 2015). Option to meet the TH2 requirement in the 80 MATM and 80 MAICS Programs (Fall 2015). Meets the CHB requirement in the 144 MDiv Program.
FINAL EXAMINATION: Yes.